Jekyll Island Art Exhibit

JEKYLL ISLAND, GA – Paintings by Stephen Rothwell and Sarah Tallu Schuyler and basketry by Cathy Miller will be featured during the Jekyll Island Arts Association's February exhibit at the Goodyear Cottage on Jekyll Island, February 1 – March 1. An artists' reception, which is free and open to the public, will be held on February 3, from 1-3 p.m. Goodyear Cottage is open weekdays from noon to 4 p.m. and on weekends from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Rothwell says his association with native artists and being responsible for the purchase and development of a national art collection while working for the Canadian Dept. of Indian and Northern Affairs inspired his own creative interests. Encouraged by his wife, Marion, to spend less time on the golf course, he started painting in 1985. He retired from the federal government in 1998 and began to focus on watercolors and what he calls his second career.

"From the day I started painting, I became obsessed with learning everything I could about watercolor and the techniques involved in producing a painting," he says. Rothwell has taught workshops in Montana, New York and Ontario and now teaches at Jekyll's Goodyear Cottage during the winter. He and his wife split their time between Jekyll and Newboro Lake, near Ontario.Schuyler graduated from Pennsylvania State University and moved to New York, where she studied at the Art Students League. She did graduate work at Carnegie Mellon University and has continued to take classes in both art and art education. She has been an art teacher in Pennsylvania, New York and Tennessee, but has had a long history and deep love of Jekyll Island, where both her parents and her grandmother lived. She and her husband, Thom, a professional songwriter, moved to Jekyll last year. She is currently the lower school art teacher at Frederica Academy on St. Simons Island.

Retirement offered the opportunity to pursue a growing interest in the art of basketry, Miller says. "At an annual art show in Massachusetts, I found a wonderful basketmaker and quickly signed up for one of her classes. One class, one basket, and I was hooked."

Miller teaches various levels of basketmaking on Jekyll through the Arts Association. "I have seen the joy in each person as they create their masterpiece," she says. "For me, basketmaking is a joy, the joy of sight, the joy of creativity, and the joy of touch."

ABOUT THE JIAAJekyll Island Arts Association (JIAA) is a non-profit, membership association organized exclusively for charitable purposes. Its general purpose is the artistic, cultural, literary and educational development of Jekyll Island, Ga. JIAA has the use of and is stewards of Goodyear Cottage in the Jekyll Island Historic District, where monthly art exhibits in the Gallery are free and open to the public. Monthly programs on topics in varied artistic disciplines are presented at multiple venues. The Association maintains and staffs a gift shop in Goodyear Cottage with the work of members displayed on consignment. Goodyear Cottage is open weekdays from noon to 4 p.m. and on weekends from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.